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The GuestHouse Storytellers is one of the most successful storytelling clubs in the country. We are a non-profit organisation and Xanthe Gresham is the Artistic Director.

The club meets on the second Tuesday of every month (except July and August) at The Hillcrest Centre in Newhaven. We have no registered membership; everyone is welcome and you become a member by attending.

Most of our evenings there is an opportunity for one or two stories from the floor where aspiring storytellers may book a slot to tell a seven minute story.

Every month we have world-class professional tellers. We have hosted some of the top storytellers in the country – Peter Chand, Hugh Lupton, Sally Pomme Clayton,  Ashley Ramsden, Roi Gal-or, Nick and Emily Hennessey and many others.

An oral story is a living thing and it lives and evolves, not in the words, but in the images you, the listener, create in your imagination and the words that you use to pass it on. It carries the meaning that you take from it. It becomes yours. And just as important as any of the above, storytelling is fun. It makes you laugh and cry, feel angry and joyful and nourished.

These are some of our things people have said after attending their first oral storytelling performance:

“It was incredible. I felt I was right there in the story. I could see the pictures, hear the voices, even smell the flowers and feel the breeze on my skin.”
“I was completely transported to a different world. When the story ended it took me a few minutes to come back to the room where we were.”
It is hard for an adult to remember the childhood experience of being immersed in a well told story. Why not come along and try it?

Our History

In 2006 a group of us did a course in storytelling at the University of Sussex and discovered an art form that we had no idea still existed.

Afterwards we wanted to go on telling and listening to stories so we continued to meet, then bring friends along, and gradually we evolved into The GuestHouse Storytellers club. We chose the name from a poem by the 12^th century Persian mystic, Rumi, which you can read here: http://www.gratefulness.org/poetry/guest_house.htm

Venue: Hillcrest Community Centre, Bay Vue Road, Newhaven BN9 9LH. (Map) Free Parking. Disabled access. Café.

Time:   Second Tuesdays, September to June. Café opens 6.30pm. Stories from 7.30pm